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| Rock Legend Sammy Hagar’s Newest Restaurant Concept Coming to Southland Park Gaming & Racing | Popular regional entertainment destination adding Sammy Hagar’s Red Rocker Bar & Grill, a 150-seat restaurant and sports bar, as part of expansion opening by year’s end. | Sammy
Hagar’s Red Rocker Bar & Grill, a 150-seat restaurant and sports bar,
will open as part of Southland Park’s $37.4 million expansion and exterior
redesign project, scheduled to be completed by year’s end. Construction
at the West Memphis, Ark., location began in January on the new 41,000-square-foot
building that will house Sammy Hagar’s Red Rocker Bar & Grill, as well
as a redesign and enhancement of the venue’s exterior, main drive and south
entrance.
 Hagar has been one of rock music’s most dynamic and prolific artists over a 40-year career that has included stints as the lead singer and frontman of the acclaimed band Van Halen and early 1970s seminal hard rock band Montrose. He’s earned the highest respect of the music industry with a Grammy Award and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Van Halen and is currently on his fourth platinum run with the super group Chickenfoot. Along his journey, Hagar has also become a dedicated philanthropist, a New York Times best-selling author for his 2011 autobiography “Red: My Uncensord Life in Rock,” and auspicious entrepreneur. Hagar, whose grandfather was an Italian chef, began his successful foray into restaurants and spirits in 1990 when he opened the Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He has expanded the Cantina brand to include locations in Hollywood, Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe and successfully launched five Sammy’s Beach Bar and Grill restaurants, from which he uses his personal proceeds to local charities. In 2011, he partnered with celebrity chef Tyler Florence to open el Paseo in Mill Valley, Calif., and in 2012 opened the first Sammy’s Rockin’ Island Bar & Grill in Roseville, Calif. In 1996 Hagar was seeking a tequila worthy of the Cabo Wabo name and began serving his Cantina patrons a house brand that he commissioned from a local multigenerational family of tequila makers in Mexico. By 2006 he had built Cabo Wabo into the second-best selling premium tequila in the United States. In recent years Hagar has turned his attention to rum. The part-time Maui resident again found a local source, partnering with one of the island’s master distillers, Mark Nigbur, to produce Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum, a silver rum distilled in small batches. In 2012, its first year on the market, the spirit garnered praise and several awards, including Best of Show at the highly competitive “2012 Nightclub and Bar Show” in Las Vegas. “Sammy Hagar has turned a lifelong passion for great food, music and spirits into a thriving and iconic lifestyle brand that has grown to encompass successful restaurants, bars and spirits,” said Troy Keeping, Southland Park’s president and regional general manager. “We are extremely excited and proud to be partnering with Sammy Hagar to bring the first Sammy Hagar’s Red Rocker Bar & Grill to our patrons at Southland Park Gaming & Racing and everyone in the greater Memphis area.” The new restaurant and sports bar at Southland Park will showcase Hagar’s new rum and the delicious food and great atmosphere of his other restaurant concepts – likely with a few new twists. Sammy’s will also feature over 22 taps for draft beer. Jennifer Reynolds, Principal of Ideation Design Group in Phoenix, led her design team in creating the new Red Rocker look, as well as the design of Sammy’s other restaurants around the country. “There is nothing more exciting and challenging than trying to interpret Sammy’s rockstar lifestyle into a dynamic restaurant and bar that conveys the essence of Sammy Hagar” said Jennifer Reynolds. “What could be more appealing than combining great music, sports and dining? With a menu developed from recipes of some of my favorite friends and celebrity chefs, our guests will be able to relax, enjoy a great meal and know that they are helping us give back to the community through our charitable donations, said Hagar. “Working with Southland Park to develop Sammy Hagar’s Red Rocker Bar & Grill has been a wonderful experience. And, I am really looking forward to the grand opening.” Southland Park and parent company Delaware North Companies, a global hospitality and food service company that also operates regional gaming destinations, are working with Hagar’s team on the design and menus for Sammy’s Red Rocker Bar & Grill. “Delaware North works with dozens of top national brands, and we were looking for the right opportunity to work with Sammy Hagar and bring one of his concepts to one of our many locations,” said Richard Schneider, vice president of hospitality for Delaware North Companies Gaming & Entertainment. “Anyone who has been to one of Sammy’s restaurants or has sampled Cabo Wabo or the new rum knows the very high level of quality of his brands.” Southland Park’s expansion will also house up to 250 new gaming machines – which will bring the venue’s total capacity to more than 1,750 games. The current building’s exterior will be “reskinned” so that both it and the addition appear as one seamless complex. The exterior will feature new walls with improved signage and LED lighting, as well as improved disability access and parking. The southeast entrance from North Ingram Boulevard will be redesigned, and a new main drive created to a new porte-cochere and entrance of the venue. This will also create space for an expanded valet parking program. A new loading dock on the east side of the complex has been constructed. “Our business keeps growing, and we anticipate that the expanded gaming floor and a great new concept such as Sammy Hagar’s Red Rocker Bar & Grill will give even more people a reason to come to Southland Park,” Keeping said. “We are becoming a large, multifaceted entertainment complex and destination.” Southland Park completed an $11 million renovation and expansion project in 2012 that added 200 gaming machines, a larger event center, kitchen and serving space for the World Market Buffet, and Shine Blounge, which features signature moonshine drinks. About
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